PRESIDENT CLINTON: President Menem, distinguished
members of the Argentine government, Governor Verani, Mayor Miguel,
Dr. Varotta, Director Suarez, and Colonel Cabana, thank you very
much.

Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you for your
wonderful hospitality to Hillary, to me, to all of our team from the
Cabinet and the American administration.

We're very grateful to you. We are also grateful for
our broad and deep partnership with Argentina. From peacekeeping
missions around the globe to our cooperation in the far reaches of
outer space; from expanding trade to extending its benefits to all
our people; from the peaceful use of nuclear power to the fight
against terrorism, over the last two days we have worked hard to
deepen our cooperation to benefit all of our people.

For the children in this audience, our partnership to
protect the environment of our nations and the entire globe is
perhaps the most important part of what we must do together.

Eighty-four years ago this month, two visionaries of the
Americas arrived together in this place where nature and civilization
meet. One was Theodore Roosevelt. No American President had spent
more time thinking about the New World as a community of democracies;
no American President had done more to preserve and protect our
natural environment. His traveling companion was Perito Moreno, the
man who founded this magnificent domain, Nahuel Huapi National Park,
a remarkable gift to future generations.

Mr. President, it is up to us now to act with the foresight and
in the spirit of Roosevelt and Moreno in dealing with today's great
environmental challenges -- how to bring the blessings of global growth
to all nations and still protect not just our national environments,
but the planet itself.

One of our severest challenges clearly is climate
change. The evidence is compelling that increasing emissions of
greenhouse gases are leading to the warming of our planet and
that global warming could lead to profound and destructive
changes in the way we lead our lives. Among the consequences
will be the more rapid spread of diseases, the rising of the
oceans, flooding lowlands on various continents and islands in
the oceans, and more frequent and severe weather events in all
continents, including more severe droughts and floods.

Five years ago, the nations of the world began to
address this challenge at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
This December, when more than 150 nations gather in Kyoto, Japan,
we can make, and we must make more progress toward a solution.

Our goal must be to set realistic and binding limits
on greenhouse gas emissions, and then to create a blueprint to
guide us for the future. In meeting the challenge of climate
change, clearly the United States and the rest of the developed
world must lead. For today industrialized nations produce most
of the greenhouse gases that go into our atmosphere. But
emissions from the developing world are expected to grow
dramatically. Forty years from now, they will exceed those of
developed countries. Since the issue is how to stabilize and
reduce greenhouse gases in the entire atmosphere, this is clearly
a global problem in which we must all do our share.

I applaud the leadership of President Menem in
Argentina in affirming today that developing, as well as
developed, nations should have emissions targets. And we have
agreed to pursue joint implementation, an important tool that
will allow the United States and Argentine businesses to adopt
the most cost-effective emissions reductions. We have seen
clearly in the United States over and over again that we solve
our environmental problems more quickly when we work together
with technology and markets through the private sector.

I want to make it clear that the strategy we embrace
today does not ask developing nations to sacrifice the legitimate
aspirations of their people for economic growth. Instead, it
offers an important opening to chart a new energy course that is
consistent with growth, but makes sure that today's progress does
not come at tomorrow's expense.

This endeavor will require sustained, committed partnership.
The United States is committed to providing a billion dollars to
help developing nations find alternative energy sources and use
them more efficiently. Next year at the Summit of the Americas in
Santiago, we hope to make sustainable development a cornerstone of
a new era in inter-American cooperation.

As you have heard from the previous speakers, technology,
science and education are important allies in preserving the
environment. Here in Bariloche, Argentina is building satellites
that NASA will launch. And then from high above the Earth's
atmosphere, they will help us to keep an eye on our planet's
changing contours, including surveying the forest in Chaco in the
Mesopotamia, predicting agricultural patterns in La Pampa,
monitoring the deserts in Patagonia, even tracking endangered whales
in the south Atlantic.

And the GLOBE program is using the Internet to teach
students here and in over 50 other countries that a solid grasp
of science and ecology is indeed the first step toward a cleaner
world. Today I am pleased to announce that working with
Argentina, we're establishing a new GLOBE program at a school in
a very special place -- Antarctica, a treasure held in trust for
every person on Earth. I'm also pleased that the United States
National Park Service and the Argentine National Parks
Administration has signed an agreement for a five-year program of
cooperation.

If you look at the national park around us here, and
its power to renew the soul, it certainly gives evidence to the
truth of what the Argentine writer Victoria Ocampo wrote, when
she said, we possess only what we really love. Well, this land
belongs to everyone. It is protected by the government, but we
must all love it.

Yesterday, Mr. President, Hillary and I had a chance
to walk through the magical Arrayanes Forest. It was an
experience we will never forget. And it gave us a renewed
dedication to work with you to preserve our planet for these
children and those whom they represent the world over.

At the dawn of a new century, let us resolve not
only to give our children remarkable new economic and educational
opportunities, but to preserve our hemisphere and our Earth, and
to give new meaning to the words "Nuevo Mundo."

Thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT MENEM: My dear friend the President of
the United States, members of the distinguished U.S. delegation,
Governor Verani, Argentine authorities, Mayor Cesar Miguel,
Bishop Monsignor Ruben Frazia, teachers, students, ladies and
gentlemen, distinguished members of the press.

It would have been, I believe, extremely difficult
to find a better landscape, a better scenery to refer to the
environment when compared to this magnificent place, surrounded
by these forests, lakes, mountains, the breath-taking splendor of
nature that we have in beauty, harmony and color.

One of the pillars of our foreign policy is undoubtedly the
commitment we have taken through our government on the subject of
the preservation of the environment. Reference was clearly made
also to this commitment by the U.S. President. A clear indication
of this agreement has been the fact that we have signed an agreement
between the National Park Service of the United States and the
Administration of National Parks in Argentina.

We trust this agreement will be the adequate instrument to
ensure the protection of these resources. We have to create awareness
as to the vital importance of maintaining ecological balance and to
protect the environment that should be an unavoidable commitment that
should not be delayed any further. The destruction of non-renewable
natural resources will be one of the most serious and most difficult
to solve problems that future generations will have to face. Argentina
has committed, is committing, and will commit to fulfill all the
efforts necessary and to dedicate itself in the search of solutions in
environmental issues.

Last night we shared dinner with the President of the United
States. We shared our bread, our wine, our home, and we discussed
at length with my friend the President and the members of the U.S.
delegation this same topic. And we have fully agreed that it is our
duty to custody, to protect, to take care of this world given to us
by God and that we should be able to transmit to the future
generations.

And my friend the President of the United States has
just quoted very eloquently one Argentine writer, Victoria
Ocampo. And I would like to advantage of this occasion to now
quote another Latin American writer of great importance, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez. I remember that Gabi, as his friends call him,
once said, we have received as a creation from God this world we
live in. We must not forget that it takes a butterfly 300 years
to learn to fly, that it takes a rose 150 years to give out its
wonderful smell. We have to commit ourselves to protect this
great gift we have received so that we will give the world and
mankind a more happy life.

God has told us in the Bible that we could use and
take advantage of all creatures, birds, and fish on Earth, but He
has never allowed us to destroy them, that we must protect them
and help them develop and grow.

So then, my dear friend, Mr. President, my country
will collaborate with its presence and its participation in the
drafting of the agenda for the next conference in Kyoto on
climate change. And the successful results that those important
topics to be discussed really deserve we will continue to
struggle to fulfill, so as to limit and reduce the greenhouse
effect of gas emissions.

We agree with the United States when you say that a
global problem such as climate change requires a global answer
coming from all countries. But any achievement arrived at will
be of short duration or not deep enough if we do not have the
committed leadership and the participation with the greatest of
responsibilities taken on by the United States.

But our coincidence with the United States do not
come to an end after the conference in Kyoto, since they include
many other different conferences, such as international forestry
forum, discussions on the control of hazardous chemical products,
the conference on biodiversity, and the convention on
decertification.

With the Declaration of Bariloche, I believe we come
to a very worthy closing of this institutional stage in the
historical and welcome presence of our friend to Argentina, the
President of the United States. As from that point of view, we
will continue our conversations informally, taking also advantage
of the possibility of enjoying and relaxing together as this
important visit is coming to an end.

Of course, a highlight of our bilateral relations
has been the signature by our Foreign Minister and your Secretary
of State of the memorandum of understanding for the creation of
high-level political consultations. I have considered it
adequate to explain to President Clinton the need of arriving at
a peaceful solution on our claim to follow the Malvinas Islands
through negotiations with the United Kingdom.

I have not asked for any mediation. I have only
asked the United States to give their support to the decisions
taken by the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations. It
is with great satisfaction and gratitude that I would like to
stress the fact that the White House has sent to Congress the
request of conferring upon our country a category of special
ally, non-NATO.

We have analyzed in detail economic and trade
relations with the aim of coming to a better balance in our trade
balance, and we have also underlined the important participation
of United Nations companies as foreign investors. I have
stressed our deep satisfaction that after 65 years of being
banned, now Argentine beets are occupying their place in the
competitive market of the North, thanks to the success we have
achieved in controlling foot-and-mouth disease.

I am making now a very brief summary of this
historic and important visit and the agreements we have arrived
at with the President of the United States. Among the many
issues that we have discussed I would like to stress the
importance I give to the exchange of diplomatic notes on an
agreement for cooperation and peaceful use of nuclear energy, a
topic that was also discussed here by our scientists and by our
friends, the astronauts. In space activities, NASA and CONAE
have signed two memorandums of understanding through which the
United States will cooperate in the launching of satellites for
scientific use, SAC-A and SAC-C.

And we have also stressed the fact of the importance
of having greater cooperation and exchange in education, and the
fact that we will also discuss these same issues during the
second summit to be held in Santiago, Chile.

I believe that the achievements already arrived at
and the great success of this visit is absolutely evident. And
in many ways, this is strengthening the fact that bilateral
relations are built on a solidly firm reality, based on
expectations and values that will allow us to see into the
future, how different instances of cooperation can be
consolidated in different areas.

Before coming to this place, our people in protocol
told us we should be very careful, because there is a nest of
some birds called teros down there. These kind of birds called
teros are strong defenders and can be very aggressive when
defending their little recently-born birds in their nests,
waiting to give them a good future.

So, dear friends, with the same tenacity, with the
same strength, let us defend and protect. As these birds defend
what they have created, we should defend what God has created.